| Can men with locs and natural hair styles climb the corporate ladder? Hampton University says "no." |
Seemingly, out of nowhere (slow news day, maybe?) the issue of "allowing" certain natural hairstyles made the news again last week. None of this is new and I'm really not sure why all of this is even getting a new life now, more than 10 years later.
But the story made the rounds on blogs last week (I saw a column written by Demetria Lucas on Essence.com) and I suppose it's a hotbutton issue -- again. Perhaps most of the kerfluffle was over this comment accredited to Hampton Business School Dean Sid Credle:
"I mean, Charles Drew didn't wear [cornrows or locs], Muhammad Ali didn't wear it, Martin Luther King didn't wear it.”
Same Hair Ish, Different Year
More than 10 years later, same foolishness.
Hair styles aren't something that need to be "legislated," particularly not at the college level. Not privy to details, but I'm assuming that you don't hear Yale, Stanford or Harvard telling its biz school graduates about what hairstyles to wear. And even if they did, so what?
Like it or not, there is a professional uniform. Biz school grads who frown at wearing a suit to work -- or at least dress slacks and a nice shirt and tie -- are probably going to get the side eye when it comes time for them to negotiate large deals and wheel and deal with the big boys -- and girls.
There is an "accepted" style of dress, no matter the environment. Same goes for hairstyles, depending upon whom you work for. What flies at Facebook (Co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is known for wearing hoodies and shorts) won't work on the New York Stock Exchange where more conservative blue/gray suits and wingtips are the norm.
Which Natural Hairstyles Does Hampton Think are OK?
Maybe I didn't get the memo, but since when did Hampton get off telling grads what hairstyles to wear to work? Let the chips fall as they may. Kids wear their hair in all different styles while in college. It's called self expression.
But unless they are art students or fashion majors (two very different professions in which creativity is actually embraced) most students ditch or at least tone down the colorful, spiked hair and wild and crazy look right around graduation, because they need a J-O-B. Especially in this economy.
Does an HBCU really want to tackle this argument about, all things, natural hair?
Wonder what Hampton said about afros back in the 70s? Did they ban those, too? After all, afros at one point were seen as a rebellious type hairstyle -- very different from the "acceptable" processed conks that Black men wore and the press and curls that Black women wore.
What's Really Being Said Here?
Why Hampton feels the need to "ban" these natural hair styles -- or any hairstyle for that matter -- is beyond me. Sometimes, you really don't need to say or do anything. We're just getting to the point where natural hair is "accepted" in the workplace among Black women.
Now this?
Let me be clear: I feel some kind of way about cornrows. Cute on a 5-year-old boy, but not so cute on a 30-year-old man. Hate to say it, but corn rows on grown men over 30 aren't cute to me. Too much baggage (read: Did you just do a stint in jail?) for me, and it's a juvenile style that I associate with younger men.
But just because I may not feel them, doesn't mean that the business school has to "ban" them or legislate them, especially when it comes to adults. It's one thing to nurture and mentor young adults. Who among us hasn't worn something in professional circles that, looking back, probably wasn't a good idea?
Yet, it's quite another to outright "ban" a hairstyle; that's my beef.
Like them or hate them, corn rows are not a particularly accepted style outside of creative circles (folks who aren't musicians, athletes and artists). Even some of those folks who used to rock cornrows hard no longer wear them (think Ludacris, Bow Wow).
Can't say the same thing about locs, though they are not accepted in many non-creative professional circles, especially if they are long. Just like long hair (longer than neck length) on most men, of any race, isn't accepted everywhere, either. Good luck trying to get long hair into a military or police academy with flowing hair.
Men and Natural Hair
At the same time, men have an all together different natural hair battle, which usually has more to do with length than anything, since there is the perception that long hair is feminine. We may debate about which natural hairstyles are OK for women in the workplace (there are many) but men with natural hair have a totally different battle, depending upon their profession.
Does Hampton "allow" locs on women? Would love to know, since I've posted some of the most baddest loc styles that would totally be appropriate in the most corporate of settings. For all I know, Hampton is telling it's female students that natural updos aren't acceptable in corporate America, when I know I've posted plenty of natural hairstyles on this blog that are.
Doing Too Much?
I know that HBCUs prepare our men and women for corporate America -- and they have expectations, real high ones. Credle's right: MLK didn't wear locs. I get it. Yet, it's a very slippery slope that will soon extend to how students talk, dress, act and walk - all things that are probably drilled into HBCU students.
Still, a "ban" is totally unnecessary, especially when it comes to adult styles at an institution of higher learning. No matter how an HBCU feels about hairstyles, it's really hard to convince folks that they aren't coming down on natural hair -- period. And we all know that natural hairstyles get the most criticism from our own folks, not everyone else.
More than 10 years after Hampton issued its first "ban" on locs and cornrows on men, we've come a long way, baby. Not unusual at all to see natural hair -- in many styles -- in the workplace, on both men and women.
Sometimes, it's best to leave our own personal expectations out of it and avoid policing individual styles; leave it to the workplace to do that.
What do you think about Hampton's ban on natural hairstyles?
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